Battle of Malachor V (Clone Wars)
The Battle of Malachor V, also called the Second Battle of Malachor V, '''and sometimes referred to as the '''Battle for the Universe, '''moreso by historians, or simply the '''Last Battle, was a massive, chaotic, and ultimately crucial battle of the two concurrent conflicts, the Clone Wars and the Black Fleet Crisis, fought between the Second Eternal Alliance and the Universal Empire. The battle began when the Alliance goaded the ancient Sith Lord Darth Nihilus to return to his dead homeworld of Malachor V, the Dark Lord seeking to consume the Jedi Knight Anakin Skywalker on the planet, before ambushing him and his forces with an all-or-nothing assault fleet. The battle saw the two largest armies in all of galactic history pitted against each other in a single, decisive confrontation, ending with the final death of Nihilus at the hands of the young human captain known to history as Hisone Amakasu, at the cost of her life. The battle was often considered to be the ultimate decider of the fate of the galaxy, and quite possibly the universe, itself. Prelude Old tricks Two days after the Universal Empire's massive armada suddenly and mysteriously leapt into hyperspace, Clone Squad Delta, a clone commando squad, searched the Empire's empty and abandoned fortress world of Korriban for any sort of clues. After Fixer sliced into the base's main computers, the squad discovered and relayed back to the brass that the bulk of Darth Nihilus' fleet, which itself consisted of quintillions of ships, was hidden in the Unknown Regions, and that the galaxy was practically surrounded by untold numbers of Megas, Resurgents, Harrowers, and Terminus destroyers, all awaiting the Sith Lord's signal to wipe out the last remnants of both the Old Republic and the Confederacy in one blow before moving on to the rest of the universe. They also discovered that if Nihilus were to die, his undead servants would go with him, turning them into mute corpses. Now more desperate then ever, the Second Eternal Alliance dispatched Hisone Amakasu, her Organic Transfomed Flyer, Masotan, her lover Haruto Okonogi, Jedi Generals Anakin Skywalker and Obi-Wan Kenobi, and Raum Vilage, who was previously in a self-imposed exile on Ilum after the loss of his companion RASV-01 during the Second Battle of Europe, to the dead, fractured world of Malachor V, in the hopes that Anakin's high midichlorian count and power in the Force would lure Nihilus to the planet. And this worked: Nihilus, along with his flagship, the Mega-class star dreadnought Harbinger, and a considerable escort force of Terminus destroyers, Harrower-class star destroyers, and Resurgent-class battlecruisers, arrived above the planet, with the intent of consuming the young Jedi. The battle First strikes "After I devour you, Skywalker, and after we annihilate your futile Alliance, my Empire will send its fleets out to devastate the entire known universe, leaving only the bare minimum of life left. The Ritual will be reestablished, and the Empire, under my rule, will flourish in this new, orderly universe." "Born out of innocents' blood." "You won't be alive to have a say in the matter. And they will have no choice but to bend the knee." "Well lucky you, we're all kinds of stubborn." "I'm glad; life teeming with the Force is now willingly sacrificing itself to me, thanks to you." -Darth Nihilus and Anakin Skywalker Nihilus initially attempted to convince the group, especially Raum and Hisone, into joining his side, promising them immense power. When they refused, he gave them an ultimatum, telling Anakin that his Empire will conquer the rest of the universe after it is finished with the Second Eternal Alliance, before drawing and igniting his lightsaber. The Jedi and Raum did the same with theirs. Hisone began to board Masotan before the dragon spit her out, charging towards Nihilus himself despite Hisone's tearful objections, swallowing the Sith Lord and being subsequently and gruesomely blown in half from the inside, his flesh and Starblazer-class power armor being torn asunder and reduced to a char. "Come on...hold it back...just a little- ah, fuck it!" -Raum Vilage before letting himself fall to the Dark As the group stood in shock, Raum pushed all them back with the Force, having now allowed the Dark Side to overtake him and snuff out whatever Light remained. The two Sith then fought an intense duel, blasts of lightning streaking across the sky before clashing their sabers together, with Raum managing to hold his ground for longer than Nihilus expected, before eventually having his defense broken as he was stabbed in the abdomen. The fleet arrives, and hope rises "I have..seen the future...Dark Lord...your Empire...will never come to pass." ''-Raum's final words Raum then told Nihilus that through precognition, he learned that the Dark Lord's plans for the universe would ultimately fail, to which he replied by simply tearing the Kaleesh in half, killing him. As the group is demoralized, and as Nihilus' soldiers, light assault speeders, walkers, and starfighters deployed to the surface, he sensed several large masses exiting hyperspace, and so did the Jedi. Above the group, one by one, among various other ship classes, several Imperators, Venators, Bulwarks, Providences, Recusants, Munificents, Arquitens, Victorys, Subjugators, Dreadnaughts, Lucrehulks, Captors, and new designs like the America-class star carriers, Gifu-class multirole destroyers, Fuhrer-class battleships, and Landkreuzer Deployers all appeared in the atmosphere of the planet. The newly-arrived Alliance armada then began launching starfighters, including the recently-introduced T-62 Starblazer-class and the brand new American-designed F-41 Broadsword heavy starfighters, and deploying every ground soldier and surface vehicle they had: among others, clone troopers, battle droids, Blaze troopers, droidekas, STAPs, BARC speeders, AT-TEs, AT-ATs, AT-XTs, TX-130 Saber-class fighter tanks, AATs, HMPs, OG-9s, HAVw A6 Juggernaut and MTT landships, Hailfire droids, Persuader-class tank droids, LAATs, F-35 Lightning IIs, A-10 Thunderbolt IIs, F/A-18 Hornets, M1 Abrams tanks, prototype D77-TC Pelican dropships, what remained of the Marines and Army, supersoldiers encased in advanced power armor, F-15Js, Type 10 Hitomaru tanks, Tiger/rtf tanks, Raubtier walkers, Blitz-Falke RA/Ts, and the massive, eight-hundred meter-long Elefant-class Landkreuzer walkers. Nihilus looked at the Alliance's battalions in shock; history had repeated himself, and he once again fell into an ambush. The desperate fight for the universe had begun. "''Awaiting your attack orders, General!" "...Weapons free!" -Captain CT-7567 "Rex" and Anakin "However ingenious your trap was, it will all be in vain." -Nihilus to the forces before him Each side desperate to extinguish the other, the two armies then dropped all pretenses and charged at one another, the shrieks of the undead soldiers and the Mandalorian war chants of the Fett clones almost drowning out the sounds of the battle itself. Elefants provided artillery for the Alliance's forces, as the unbreakable union dueled with and blasted the Sith army, their walkers, and their starfighters. Above, the massive fleets exchanged passionate broadsides at point-blank range, the flaming hulks of each defeated warship raining down on both armies; a Venator's crew in desperation ended up ramming a Resurgent-class battlecruiser through the middle. Nihilus himself tore through clones, non-clone soldiers, and battle droids alike, as he headed for his target: Skywalker. However, the Jedi was waiting for him, coordinating with Obi-Wan, Hisone, Haruto, Darth Sidious, General Grievous and Count Dooku, among several other Jedi Knights and Dooku's Sith Acolytes, to attack the Sith Lord in full force. Thus, Nihilus was forced to fight several Jedi, Sith, and a vengeful couple at once, as Sidious unleashed a powerful volley of Force lightning on him, cackling maniacally as he told him that this was his universe to rule, the bright, violet streaks of energy coursing through the Lord of Hunger and causing him immense pain. "Open fire on my position!" "But my Lord, you'll be caught in the blas-!" "Just do it!" Nihilus to the crew of the Harbinger Overwhelmed, Nihilus ordered the Harbinger to fire on his position, which knocked Sidious back as his robe unfurled briefly to unwittingly reveal his true identity to a single Jedi Knight: the Supreme Chancellor Sheev Palpatine. The blast of the Harbinger's cannons devastated large portions of both his and the Alliance's armies, yet the Alliance still fought strong, now on the verge of prevailing over his forces. Desperate to end the Alliance's threat once and for all, Nihilus began to construct a thought bomb in his left hand, much like the one he deployed on Katarr long ago. Seeing what the Dark Lord was doing, Rex charged at him, seeking retribution for the loss of Torrent Company on Earth. Grabbing a lightsaber belonging to a killed Sith soldier, he dueled the Sith Lord briefly, slashing him across the chest before Nihilus impaled the clone with a piece of metal shrapnel before slashing his chest with his lightsaber, as the Captain went out in a blaze of glory. "If you can get even a fragment of his mask, you'll gain the power to kill him, but you will die painfully, be corrupted beyond all redemption...or both." "So, what's the pla-?" "Take care of our son." -Obi-Wan, Haruto, and Hisone Catching a glimpse of Nihilus' plan, an exhausted and beaten Obi-Wan explained to Hisone that acquiring even a part of Nihilus' mask will enable her to finally kill him, but warned her that the cost will either be death or irreparable corruption of her soul. Realizing what must be done to save the galaxy, and ultimately, the universe itself, Hisone shared what would become her final kiss with Haruto, telling him to take care of their son before departing to face Nihilus alone. Absorbing Rex's life energies, Nihilus managed to complete the thought bomb, the weapon's unstable energy causing it to emit bright streaks of light, but before he could detonate it, he was interrupted by Hisone, who engaged him in hand-to-hand combat, blocking his lightsaber blows with her armor's shields, as she managed to score a blow on his mask, before being tossed aside. War of the gods "I am...death incarnate." "And I...am...ngh...''The Dragon Pilot." Nihilus and Hisone's final exchange Nihilus then taunted Hisone, before snapping his fingers and detonating the bomb; it misfired, reducing the cloth, armor, and flesh of his left arm into primordial sludge that melted off from the intense energy, exposing the "bone" underneath. The sizable fragment that Hisone chipped off his mask--practically the entire left side of it--fused with her armor's faceplate, giving her a terrifying, shocking vision of both the past and what was to come: several, devastating galactic wars with no permanent peace in sight, and immense beings beyond comprehension assembling countless star systems, including what appeared to be several, exact replicas of the Sol system. The Dark Side energies rippled up and down her body in great, glowing red streaks, as she began a painful transformation into the entity Darth Sorrow; large, dragon-like wings sprouted from her back, her eyes turning bright yellow and her skin turning black as coal. Hisone Amakasu was no more. Sorrow had taken her place. Her very first act after the transformation was complete was vaporizing Nihilus' entire Sith army on the planet with Force lightning, reducing everything--troops, walkers, even starfighters--into subatomic particles. Sorrow then ripped Nihilus' warships right out of the sky with the Force, sending them wildly careening into the planet's surface. Grasping the hull of the ''Harbinger with the Force, she cracked the Mega dreadnought in half, her power stemming from the pure, raw, unbridled rage and grief over the people in her life that she lost to the Dark Lord. Grabbing the late Raum's crossguard lightsaber, Sorrow finally engaged Nihilus directly, meeting his attacks blow for blow, before Nihilus saw a small break in his enemy's defense, and impaled her in the chest, just as she impaled him through the right eye socket of his mask, finally killing the ancient Sith Lord once and for all, and releasing every spirit he had devoured into the Netherworld of the Force in a great blast of white, blinding light, finally putting them to rest. "No, no! Stay with me, Hisone! I'm not letting you die here!" "It's...ok, Haru...let go...we've won..." Haruto and Hisone, before the latter succumbed to her injuries The fragment of the mask fell off of Hisone's face, as the Dark and the Light left her dying body, mortally wounded as burns and cracks formed in her skin, causing her to lose the will to live, as Nihilus had long ago. Haruto and clone medic CT-6116 "Kix" rushed to her aid, hoping to save her as they had in Japan almost four years ago--but no amount of bacta could keep her from dying. She shared a bittersweet goodbye with him before dying in his arms, as he broke down in tears. Minutes later, for the first time in eons, it began to rain on Malachor V. Not chemical rain, not rain from the coolant fluids of the destroyed ships: simply rain, from clouds that had formed above, as the Malachor system's star shone through them. Their Mandalorian heritage flaring up, the entire Clone Army took this as a sign of divine blessing, beginning deep chants that spoke about an ultimate Maker, using the Mandalorians as His instruments to extinguish all who opposed them and Him in the galaxy, and that they had succeeded in doing just that, ending the ancient threat to the known universe once and for all. Aftermath "Prepare our fleet, general; our greatest triumph awaits." Count Dooku to General Grievous before handing him a hyperlane map containing a path through the Deep Core Both sides had suffered great losses, but the Universal Empire was the one that lost it all, and Nihilus' grand dreams of ruling the universe died with him. As the countless undead Sith soldiers across the galaxy collapsed and became catatonic as a result of Nihilus' final death, Dooku handed Grievous a hyperlane map leading through the Deep Core to Coruscant, as he told him to prepare the Confederacy's forces; his heart hardened from the death of Raum, his former apprentice and possibly who he considered to be his son, Grievous simply and silently nodded as he and the Second Eternal Alliance departed Malachor V. The Alliance soon disbanded, as both the Republic and the Confederacy of Independent Systems resumed war. The remnants of the United States of America, Japan, and the Reich der Festen Hand, meanwhile, armed with their new warships and left to their own devices, went their separate ways, each relocating to some remote system to rebuild what once was of their respective nations, with what remained of America in particular arriving at what seemed to be a primitive version of the Sol system, with its Earth's inhabitants not yet having formed concrete civilizations; taking advantage of this, the Americans resumed their old ways of expansionism, building a vast military and interstellar government in the Unknown Regions over the next several years, which would become known as the United Nations Space Command. The HoloNet network that Nihilus destroyed would eventually be rebuilt before the end of the Clone Wars. Mere days before the daring raid that would spark the Battle of Coruscant, a mass funeral was held on the planet, commemorating the fallen clone and non-clone soldiers who gave their lives to save the universe from a fate worse than annihilation. Many years after his final defeat, the mere mention of Nihilus' name was still enough to evoke dread throughout the galaxy, especially on worlds that he had previously depopulated like Telos IV, while Hisone's name was exalted, especially by the humanocentric Galactic Empire that Palpatine would go on to establish, after a few setbacks involving more Jedi than he anticipated, including Plo Koon, escaping Order 66; Imperial propagandists would downplay the actions of the Jedi and non-human soldiers during the Black Fleet Crisis and emphasize the fact that the ancient threat was ultimately defeated by a single, courageous, human woman. After his death, the only remnants of the Universal Empire left were the ghost fleets of untold numbers of ships both in the Unknown Regions and outside the galaxy, with droid sentinels still guarding the lonely Rim Installations, awaiting orders that would never come. These long forgotten relics of an ancient terror would then be unceremoniously destroyed by the extragalactic, technology-hating race known as the Yuuzhan Vong as they began their invasion of the galaxy. Several decades after the Black Fleet Crisis and years after the fall of Palpatine's Galactic Empire at the hands of the Alliance to Restore the Republic, which then transitioned into the New Republic and after the Yuuzhan Vong's invasion the Galactic Federation of Free Alliances, a militant, pro-Palpatinian Imperium group calling itself the First Order relocated to the Unknown Regions, discovering the vast fleets of ghost ships to still be fully operational and functional. They used some of this fleet as resources for constructing the massive superweapon Starkiller Base, which would go on to annihilate the Federation's capital planet and the entire Hosnian system in 34 ABY, while keeping the rest of the armada as their own and continuing to turn out ships and shipyards thanks to the survival of a single Mega-class star dreadnought, the ''Supremacy. ''Nihilus himself would have appreciated the irony. Behind the scenes The battle itself was, in part, inspired by the final battle sequence of the Marvel Cinematic Universe film Avengers: Endgame.